Owen Rice on the Kahnawake Hunters: A Stick at Three, Junior B at 15, and Why Halifax is the Dream

The story that keeps coming out of Kahnawake isn't just about one player. It's about a system. A community that teaches the game early, plays it hard, and sends kids into dressing rooms where most 15-year-olds would freeze. Owen Rice is 18 now. He got his first stick at three. He was watching his brothers play before most kids have found the remote control. By the time the Kahnawake Hunters handed him an AP call-up, he was already ahead of where most players his age are mentally. Episode 31 of The Creator's Game sat him down with Deya Miller, Jay Smith, and Chris Vale for 26 minutes of straight lacrosse talk. He does not come across as a kid trying to prove something. He comes across as a kid who already knows where he is going and is just running the steps. Key Moments from This Episode [01:04] Growing up watching his brothers – getting into lacrosse on his own, no pressure. [02:22] Last year of minor, a provincials semifinal loss, and when the offensive game started clicking. [02:46] The AP call-up to the Hunters at 15 – exciting and nervous in the same breath. [04:16] The core group: Sugle Rice, Saten Van Damlin, goalie Casey. [05:36] Laxachusetts and the California box trip, including the Warrior Lacrosse highlight moment. [06:18] Club 24 at Laxachusetts with John DeTommaso, Dwight Jacobs, and Deakon Knott – short-handed before Ethan Hogan arrived Sunday. [09:33] Coach Gio's simplest advice: keep a cool head, do not go out to hurt anybody, play the game. [09:46] The inter-squad fight the comment section ran with. [18:23] What winning the first-ever Founders Cup would mean to Kahnawake. [22:55] Halifax Thunderbirds as the dream NLL destination. A Stick at Three, a Call-Up at 15 Owen did not get walked into lacrosse. He watched his older brothers play, liked what he saw, and picked up the stick on his own. He is connected to the Brian Rice family tree, though his teammate Sugle Rice is not a blood relative. One brother played Junior, stopped after that, and Owen kept going. He started on the floor. Not the field. The floor is where Kahnawake teaches the game, and by the time he was playing his last minor year, the offensive game was sharp enough that coaches were paying attention. The AP call at 15 came from the Hunters. He dressed for a handful of games, sat in a dressing room full of guys in their late teens and early 20s, and figured it out the way most early call-ups figure it out – by listening and staying out of the way. That same core he grew up with – Sugle Rice and Saten Van Damlin and goalie Casey – most of them moved up together. Some left for other reserve teams or billet programs for a year or two. This season, most of the group is back. Owen said it plainly on the podcast: he missed having them on the floor. Now he does not have to. Laxachusetts With Ethan Hogan and a Tournament Education The weekend that clearly stuck with him most was Club 24 at the Laxachusetts adult box tournament. The coaches were John DeTommaso and Dwight Jacobs, which is already a CV most junior players would trade for. The team showed up short-handed. Deakon Knott was there. Saturday was a grind. Sunday, Ethan Hogan walked in as reinforcement and the tournament turned. Owen called playing alongside Hogan unreal. More than anything, he said, it was about watching how smart DeTommaso is about the game. About seeing a veteran like Hogan handle pregame. A fun tournament is different from a Bandits regular season, but the habits transfer. Before that was the California box trip, where Kahnawake kids played against Logan Kane's team and ended up with a Warrior Lacrosse-approved highlight. Warrior does not repost a lot of junior content. One of the goals that weekend was good enough that the brand shared it. If you are a young player from a small community, moments like that are how you get on a list. The Inter-Squad Scrap and an Enforcer's Mindset The Rebels inter-squad scrimmage produced a fight the comment section blew up over. Owen was in it. He did not sound proud about it, exactly – more matter-of-fact. Backed up, went at it, done. Coach Gio's advice earlier in the season had been the opposite of that: keep a cool head, do not go out to hurt anybody. So there was no plan to scrap. It just happened. What it signalled was real. A young forward who drops the gloves in a pre-season scrimmage is telling his team he is not waiting for someone else to handle business. The Stouts brothers, Andy and Austin, were built that way too – great scorers who would not step back if something needed sorting. Owen fits that mold. Akwesasne, Carey Terrance, and a Rivalry Home Opener The night of the recording, Kahnawake was getting ready to play Akwesasne Thunder. Owen grew up playing against Carey Terrance, who signed with the Ducks and suits up for Akwesasne. They have never been teammates, always on opposite benches. That is how the Quebec-Mohawk junior rivalry works. You see the same faces from bantam onward, and eventually one of them ends up in an NHL system and the other is sitting in a podcast chair talking about him. Asked to predict a score, Owen went 17-8. Asked how many he would personally get: at least three. A First-Ever Founders Cup and a Halifax Dream Kahnawake has Junior B provincial banners. A community parade with three minor teams winning in the same year is a real memory. What the Hunters have never had is a Founders Cup. Owen knows that. He said it would mean a lot to be part of the group that brings the first one home. Beyond that, the NLL path is the goal. Two more years of junior eligibility after this one. His favourite team is Halifax. If Halifax calls his name on a future draft day, that is the one. Strictly a box player, so the East Coast Indigenous talent pipeline that has already produced so many pros is the one he is aiming at.